Relocation UK – Running for the Hills after Moving to London

Well, hello my little relocating-to-London poopsies. I’ve missed you! I’m hoping to be back blogging more regularly this month—there’s just been so much going on! Lots of fun stuff in store with our impending new website, but I’ll keep my lips sealed on that a bit longer. For now, I’d just like to share with you how a move is so much more than just living in a new city; it’s living in a new country, with special emphasis on country…

You see, this little City Mouse tapped into her inner Country Mouse last week with a few days spent in Cornwall. My husband and I had long put off venturing out to this much-desired region of the UK simply because we assumed it was such a far trek by train or car. Well, I’m pleased to relate that, after stealing away on my own out there for a writing retreat, the travel could not have been easier. For around £75 roundtrip, I caught the First Great Western Railway out of Paddington, and under 5 hours later, I arrived at the station in Par. I stayed at a charming B&B (Polbrean House) in Tywardreath that was seriously just a 5-minute walk from the rail station. I could walk to Par Sands Beach within 15 minutes and from there off-road it onto portions of the Saints’ Way and the South West Coast Path, which took me past the crescent-shaped little inlet of Polkerris, round to Gribben Head and onward to the port town of Fowey within a few hours…tough to estimate how long it takes, as I couldn’t help stopping all along the way to stretch my arms out to the skies like Maria Von Trapp, just bursting with the euphoria of fresh, sweet-smelling air, rolling fields, and dramatic cliffs that give way to that vast blue horizon of sea.

This, folks, is Daphne Du Maurier country, in case you’re familiar with her work. Originally from London, the author lived in Cornwall much of her life, and several of her novels such as Rebecca, The House on the Strand, The King’s General, and her short story “The Birds” (which, yes, was adapted into Alfred Hitchcock‘s film of same name) were inspired and set along this coastline. So let’s just say I was in my literary glory taking a self-guided Du Maurier hike to really bring these settings to life and learn much actual history along the way.

I chose to restrict my excursion to writing and hiking through this area alone, which was all easily accessible on foot other than when I’d take the bus back to Tywardreath from Fowey (less than 10 minutes for only about 2 quid)—so don’t feel like you have to have a car to make such a trip possible for yourself. Even if I had decided to venture out to see nearby popular sites like the Eden Project, the Lost Gardens of Heligan, Penzance, and St. Ives (all of which I intend to visit in future), I could have easily done it via public transport. And, even though I got to spend a lovely 5 nights there, I do think it’s totally doable as a Friday-Sunday weekend getaway—especially when done by train, as that in itself is such nice, relaxing down-time.

So, as you plan your international relocation to London, you might be feeling stressed now, but after London Relocation takes the load off your back and finds you your perfect apartment rental, just think of the additional R&R to be ha outside the city in rural England! Cornwall…*sigh*…where the farms meet the sea and you meet yourself. Revel in the possibilities of foregoing skylines for sky and pavement for stony dirt trails—you can have your Cornish pasty and eat it too after your London move.